Cu Chi Offensive

The Cu Chi Offensive was a North Vietnamese offensive operation of the Vietnam War which occurred in 1973.

In 1973, NVA colonel Hàn Ngọc Đại led a battalion of 500 troops to attack Cu Chi, a major ARVN base in the Saigon capital region. If Cu Chi fell, the Saigon capital region would fall under communist control and threaten the South Vietnamese government's control of its own capital and the rest of the country. The 500 NVA troops advanced from their base at a plantation and engaged in heavy fighting with the ARVN for control of several bunkers and trenches in the woods separating the plantation from the ARVN command post at a warehouse. The NVA utilized artillery bombardments to soften up the ARVN defenses, allowing for them to advance on the warehouse. However, the ARVN put up a last-ditch effort to defend the warehouse, flanking the attacking NVA troops and massacring them, as they had to advance without any meaningful cover. Every NVA soldier who took part in the great assault was killed or wounded, but the ARVN were ultimately forced to abandon their positions due to near-total losses; NVA reinforcements would arrive to occupy the rest of the area, dealing the ARVN a major defeat.